Columbia Closings   What's not in Columbia anymore

I have been noticing this place on Screaming Eagle Road, about halfway between Percival Road and US-601, for years. I always thought I would stop someday, but had never got around to it. The last few times I went to the coast, it seemed like it might be closed, so I finally did stop to take a closer look, and it is in fact closed. Since the last newspaper on the stack is dated 28 February 2018, I'm guessing it happened in early March.

There was a story in The State from a few years ago about their fried, burnt, bologna sandwiches which mentions that the owner was in poor health. I certainly hope this was not the reason for the closing, but whatever reason, it is always a shame to see these unique little local stores close.

As reported in The State as the plan was announced, West Marine, has moved from Dutch Square to Columbiana Station.

I have not yet gotten a picture of the new location, but here is the company announcement of the opening and ribbon cutting at the new store on 19 March 2018.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew, I believe)

I'm not sure when this Cayce computer store closed, but Firefox says the security certificate for their web site expired in 2017 so I'm going to go with that.

I like the latticework on this brick building. I'm guessing it probably dates from the '50s or '60s.

This one is kind of odd. After what was apparently a somewhat prolonged build, the proposed Fresh Market on Sunset Boulevard in Lexingtion was boarded up, giving rise to several local media stories, like this one from The State, that struck a reassuring tone, indicating that the store was still expected to open this Spring (ie: now). Conspicious, however, in the spin of those stories was a very tepid quote from Fresh Market corporate, which said essentially: No Comment.

Then last month The State reported that this store will *not* open in 2018 at all:

The company plans to focus on “improving core operations” at current stores, “so it has decided not to open any previously announced new stores for 2018,” according to a statement issued by the company. “Our focus remains on strengthening and growing our in-store operations, guest service program, merchandising selections, future offerings and, of course, our team members, as well as planning and executing new store openings after 2018.”

This strikes me as an extraordinary statement that has a blood-in-the-water feel to it. If the company had opened the stores it had been building and then put a hold on expansion, nobody would have said anything, but in these hard times for grocers, pausing (forever?) the opening of already (mostly) built locations sends a message quite apart from the bland words. I hope I'm wrong as I quite like the Fresh Market, but it doesn't sound good.

(Hat tip to commenter Andrew)

UPDATE 13 April 2019: The Free Times reports that Fresh Market has abandoned the site and that instead a Publix Greenwise Market will be coming instead.

I've also changed the post title status to Cancelled and added a map icon.

UPDATE 25 August 2020: Changed the street address from "5328 Sunset Boulevard" to "5336 Sunset Boulevard Suite A", to match the buisness address used by Greenwise Market, which opened in this building in December 2019 and closed in August 2020. Also updated the map icon to use the better address.

UPDATE 18 June 2022: It looks like Prisma Health will be going into this site. See here.

Mostly I knew Silver City from their old location at 906 Knox Abbott Drive. When I was a graduate assistant every Wednesday (I think it was Wednesday..) when the new comics came out, I would drive from campus to there and peruse the weekly haul.

They moved to this old Hardee's building closer to the river while I was living out of town. I did stop by several times, but by that point, I was getting my fix through a mail-order subscription service, so it wasn't quite the same, though the staff was quite pleasant and I did pick up some stuff.

According to their Facebook page the store's last day was 2 December 2017. When I took these pictures, I had a brief chat with the building owner who said that they were looking for a new tenant in the building as is rather than taking it down and starting over. I was glad to hear that, as these old Hardee's buildings are pretty thin on the ground now. After the razing of the one at Eggroll Station, this is the last in the Columbia area, and I believe the owner said there were only one or two elsewhere.

(Hat tip to commenter Thomas S)

UPDATE 12 October 2021 -- Now The Modern Locksmith.com:

Also adding map icon.

UPDATE 13 August 2022 -- Here is a picture from commenter Jimmy Freeman of the roadside sign for this building when it was a Hardee's:

I'm not a cupcake (or really any kind of cake) fan myself, but if you are: Don't despair. Cupcake Paradise is no longer in this old Piggly Wiggly center at the corner of Lake Murray Boulevard & Columbiana Drive, but they are still around. They moved to 7512 Woodrow Street (Irmo, not Shandon) sometime in the January/February 2018 timeframe and are up and running there now.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

Here's another Harveys, this one on Decker. As with all the other Harveys, this one used to be a Bi-Lo, and I did a closing for that here.

The strip mall anchored by this storefront is High Point On Decker, and it is about at the top of the hill. Just down the hill from here is another strip mall with both a Food Lion and a Rite Aid, so I'm not sure another grocer will want to locate here.

UPDATE 17 May 2018 -- This store is now closed:

Here's another vacant Cricket Wireless storefront, this one in Topspin Plaza in Lexington.

I noticed as I was getting the pictures that Topspin Plaza actually has two marquees and street addresses. I'm not sure if they are separate developments or not, but the other is at 5341 Sunset Boulevard:

(Hat tip to commenter James R)

I noticed the other weekend that this Broad River Road gas and convenience store, which was a Circle K when I originally did a closing on it, has now reflagged again, dropping the El Cheapo branding for CK Mart.

It does not appear that they did any digging or construction this time.

Beads & Yarn was the follow-on operation in this Sunset Boulevard location to Firefly Toys & Games. They apparently had quite a selection of knitting and crocheting yarn, and jewelry beads. The owners retired and closed the store in February, but still have a web site here, and do business online at Amazon.

(Hat tip to commenter James R)